Upcoming releases from Schleich (New for 2014)

When it comes to dinosaur lines, Schleich have been a bit of a let down in recent years. Not only have they retired a large proportion of their prehistoric animal figures, their most recent sculpts have been ugly and anatomically incorrect. The sort of toys that wouldn’t seem out of place in a bargain bin of ‘Made in China’ ‘Chinasaurs’. The discrepancy in quality between Schleich’s living animal figures, which are generally excellent, and their prehistoric animals figures, which aren’t, has been growing year by year. So, how are things shaping up for 2014, have we anything to look forward to for 2014, or are we in for another year of duds? Schleich have four new figures in their World of History dinosaurs line up for next year, as follows:

Velociraptor. A real monster of a figure. If you’re going to get a figure anatomically incorrect in every single way, at least try to make it look superficially good. At first glance, this figure fails on so many levels.

Pentaceratops. A ceratopsian rarely depicted in toy form.

Tyrannosaurus. In the case of both the T. rex and Velociraptor, there seems to be a case of ‘spot the difference’ with last year’s models of these two dinosaurs by Schleich.

Therizinosaurus. An intriguing figure.

For some, this new offering may offer a glimmer of hope for Schleich as a reliable manufacturer of dinosaur figures in the future. For others, it may have just put the final nail in their coffin.

We know that they are still toys like all other plastic dinosaurs , but the question is this , with all Schleich toys how more quickly declassified figures dinosaurs?

I understand that something is wrong with that company, and a child for the same price will end up buying a toy figure or another company ( who read it already three companies appear to mean me ) a flawed figure , a boy and I have been cook before friar as the saying goes no fool and also likes to toy quality … and if it is cheaper … much better.

Obviously a collector buy paleontological Sideshow figures , but in the times that we run , how many? someone who has money and most importantly and coming together with the previous annotation with a fairly large house , Sideshow figures are of considerable size .

Ultimately I understand that could make toy figures but more refined in my humble opinion , as to the most important details and a pleasant to touch material for children is not the case .

I’m pretty pessimistic about this company and my greatest desire is to be overcome. On the other hand maybe a step were the first models Pentaceratops Therizinosaurus and especially the last which is inudito market toy vinyl or plastic

Sorry for my little knowledge of English and just in case I send it to my native language.

I think comparing them to Chinasaurs is unfair and exaggerative, to be honest. They may not be scientifically accurate, but they are not on the same level of the aesthetic quality of a Chinasaur. Look at the detail of the skin impressions on that therizinosaurus. Can you honestly compare that to something like this? http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8210/8153266247_d5c2c71ac9_o.jpg

At the end of the day, Schleich’s main target range is people younger than us. These dinosaurs are toys. Not museum quality works of art that would be expected of something like a Sideshow model. Kids (nor me, to an extent) are not going to care about some inaccuracies. At least they’re not depicted as tail draggers or ugly retrosaurs like their earlier models were. These figures, while not perfect, are not as horrible as a lot of over reacting collectors are making it out to be. Sorry to rant but it’s just really getting annoying to hear people constantly whine about inaccuracies of a toy.

Some of these are obviously better than others, my main gripe would be with the Velociraptor. Chinasaurs are basically no brand figures that range in quality greatly – some of them aren’t bad at all. I’m not comparing Schleich with the dregs (yet!). That particular figure you link to is a knockoff of a Marx figure from the 60s. For me, it has more charm and character than the new Schleich Velociraptor. If you search for dinosaur toys on Amazon you’ll find all sorts of modern chinasaurs crop up. Take this set, for example, which comes up top for the keywords ‘dinosaur toys’. In my opinion, some of the new Schleichs are no better in terms of anatomical accuracy and aesthetic appearance than these. Schleich’s animal figures most definitely are museum quality, so, why not their dinosaurs?

Of course, The Dinosaur Toy Blog is all about reviewing figures for their anatomical accuracy.